“You bloody fool! Why’d you stop me from using it if you were just going to waste it?” The pudgy faced man grumbled.

I looked him over a bit more closely. The dusty cloak he wore reminded me somewhat of an old monk’s habit. It obscured most of his body except for a pair of blocky leather boots on his oversized feet. The hood of his garment fell away to reveal the top of his rounded head, covered in tufts of graying hair. With blood smeared around his face, he resembled an angry clown. A dark green tattoo of barbed wire wrapped around his throat.

“Well pardon me, I’ve never exactly used an escape node before.”

“Then why not leave it to someone who damn well knows how?” His voice had an accent to it that I couldn’t quite place. Maybe it was the nasal inflection from a broken nose throwing his voice off. He sounded like a frontiersman, but I knew he couldn’t be from any of the outworlds. Those boots were too nice to come printed off colony-level materializer equipment.

He started struggling to his feet and I trained my Thurma on him.

“Woah there, lad. Do you even know how to use that thing? Maybe that’s why you couldn’t get it to work. You need to off somebody first, you know.”

“Yes, I’m well aware. If you’d like proof just head up the bend a ways and take a peek at the cyclops I made.” My stomach blanched just thinking about it. Sure I wasn’t the most seasoned killer, but if Friar Tuck here thought I wouldn’t put him down he’d have another hole to breathe from real quickly.

“Alright, alright slow down. I’m just going to get out of your hair. I’ll leave my weapons on the floor here as a sign of goodwill, eh?” He started reaching under his cloak.

I leveled my gun sights at his head.

“Stop moving. You’re not going anywhere.”

“Then what’re you going to do with me, boy? If you were going to kill me you’d have done it already. I’ll be dead weight as your prisoner, I promise ya.”

“What’s your name? Why are you here?” This guy seemed to know more about what was going on here. I needed to leverage some information out of him, anything to give me a better edge.

“This ain’t exactly the setting for a tryst.” He replied with a dead look in his eye. When he saw I wasn’t going to let him go he sighed and played along.

“Terrence Mulligan. I’m a bounty hunter that got a little bored bagging the routine loan welch. LimeLight can pay a modest fortune, even if you peel out after some of the earlier checkpoints.”

“You don’t have to win to leave?” I asked, my hope welling up for the first time since my little encounter in the parking garage on Pollux IV.

“Well, it depends on the terms of your contract. I came as a free participant representing myself. For men in my situation, there are several stages in the competition where you can ‘buy out.’ If you came as a slave, criminal, or debtor, you may be forced to stay longer.” The bounty hunter’s eyes shifted as he talked, examining every entrance to the junction.

My shoulders sagged. My conditions didn’t exactly engender an early release.

“Look kid, I’ll tell you how to use the bloody nodes and you’ve got to let me go. We can’t sit here waiting to get picked off. Deal?”

“Fine.” Terry was right. Every second spent down left more chances for an enemy contestant to get the drop on us. “How do I use them?”

“Grab them in both hands, vertically like so.” He grabbed at an invisible sphere and held it up. “Twist down the middle and pull. It’ll open and the aura will vaporize you.”

He must’ve seen my reaction because he quickly replied. “No, not vaporize like melt you. Break you down and transport you to the Hub. Easy enough, right?” He looked at me expectantly.

I nodded. The cloaked man started to his feet and I shook my head, hefting my gun once again.

“What?”

“Your weapons. And what is that cloak? Is that a personal fashion statement or a LimeLight item?”

Mulligan’s expression soured. He gingerly reached for a billy club that pulsed with electricity. It dropped to the ground with a clang and a blue screen popped up with the weapon’s specifics.

[Uncommon Electric Melee]

Tenderizer

Blunt and electric damage

Can disable electric systems

“The cloak is mine, friend.”

“Alright, you can keep it then.” I scooped up the weapon and scurried away, still not fully trusting the bounty hunter’s intentions.

“What’s down the way you came from?”

“Just more caverns. I spawned down there.” He jutted his thumb at the darkness of the tunnel behind him.

“Where are you gonna go from here?”

“Up the way you came from, I’d imagine. Does it take me to the surface?”

“Ahuh,” I grunted. “You’ll find a ballistic pistol up near a couple of corpses. It’s still got a few rounds.”

“I appreciate ya.”

“No problem Terry!”

He made a noise of protest at the nickname, but I hurried off down the tunnel opposite the way he came from. I didn’t want to go down deeper into the mountain and going to the tunnel opposite mine I figured would also take me on a downward path. This route was the only other option.

Exhaustion was starting to creep in, even though the round must’ve only a couple of hours ago. Every noise was a possible assailant, every drip of moisture from the walls and crunching of debris. The constant fear of death had a way of wearing a man down. I’d already tasted that fear twice and put it into two men myself. If this were just round one, I’d die of exhaustion in this competition - if a raging genetic abomination or flurry of bullets didn’t take me down first. Honestly, the latter might be more merciful.

There was now the slim possibility of getting out early. Knowing my benefactors, though, they’d make sure I got a “contract” that maximized their profitability. Scarface’s words echoed in my mind.

“You will pay us back - in death or life.”

Just when I thought it would never end, light’s liberating rays began to shine through the dim tunnel. I could faintly hear the rushing of water and the swaying of wind in the leaves. Vines grew along the rocky walls. Flowers sprouted up on the cracked stone floor. The death of the mountain gave way to the life of the clearing.

The mouth of the tunnel opened up to a lightly forested clearing on the other side of the mountain. A waterfall cascaded from a sheer cliff above. The crystalline pool at the waterfall’s base emptied into the river I heard earlier. Nobody seemed to be out here - nobody alive anyway.

I pushed through the thorny bushes covering the tunnel entrance. Not that it was a real place, but it looked like this mine entrance had long since been abandoned by its hypothetical builders. The wood sagged under the weight of the mountain, dusty cobwebs that laced its framework were almost as thick as the foliage itself. Nature had reclaimed what man once sought to subdue.

Once I cleared the hazards blocking my exfil route, I stopped again to take in my surroundings. This time I noticed something bizarre that I hadn’t before. A winged figure, a hawk or falcon probably, lazily circled the skies overhead.

Normally that wouldn’t seem off in this bucolic setting. Something about it stood out to me though, like it an obvious anachronism in an old-timey movie. It struck me that this entire time I hadn’t heard a single birdsong or the buzzing of insects, nor had I seen any denizens of the forest scurrying about in all the upheaval. As far as I could tell there were no animals out here.

The creature was out of my chip’s range so I couldn’t scan it. Instead, I waited patiently as it flew lower and lower in a circular motion.

I didn’t have to sit there long. It got so close to the treetops that I could all but count the white speckles on the avian’s brown and black-tipped feathers. It looked just like a bird. I was puzzled. Why hadn’t I seen any before?

A bullet whizzed through the trees and grazed me along the neck, ripping a chunk of my flesh along with it. The force of the impact threw me to the ground. The searing pain set in and elicited a deep groan. I felt the blood dripping down my neck. Thankfully, it was a steady stream and not a life-threatening spurt. He’d missed my carotid.

The bird made a single call and flew back up into the sky. I didn’t know how, but that thing had to be helping whoever just hit me through the concealment of the wood. There was no way somebody could pop off a shot that accurately otherwise.

I whipped out my rifle and narrowed my vision on the soaring silhouette. Without even turning to spot me, it began evasive maneuvers, dashing about the sky in a series of unpredictable arcs. It moved with turns far too tight to be natural. Could this thing be a bot?

It wasn’t impossible, the virtualizer had constructed my own device in here. If someone had built a drone or remote-controlled robot that was considered a “part” of them, perhaps it would follow them in here too.

Another shot rang out but it hit the trunk of a tree several meters away, harmlessly showering the forest floor in dislodged bark.

That shot wasn’t marked. I thought to myself. He’s just trying to protect his birdie.

It was a mistake. From the shot angle, I deduced that he must be off to my right, somewhere up along the riverside. About 50 meters away there was a heavy copse hanging over the riverbank. I’d wager he was somewhere hiding out in that mess.

I turned my rifle, trained on my best guess for where he might be skulking, and let a single shot fly.

This pissed the bird off like nothing else. It veered itself around and dive-bombed on my position before I could even crank back the rifle bolt to reload.

I threw my cumbersome weapon to the side and unholstered my energy pistol. Firing two shots to deter it didn’t work, the hawk kept straight on its path to bloody vengeance. From this far away I could see its two eyes were a bright neon yellow. Its talons and beak were wrought of a metallic compound.

Dashing between trees to avoid the hawk’s assault and throw off its trajectory, I made my way towards its handler’s hiding place. The bot was in a frenzy; I must have gotten close with my shot.

60% chance of success

I could be running the wrong way, opening myself up to another shot. My gut told me the shooter had to be hiding in that patch of foliage I had fired on. Trying to wait it out with a heat-seeking death machine on my tail just simply wasn’t an option. It veered between tree and brush with ease. At one point I heard it impact something solid and I turned just slightly to see if it had crashed.

The damn thing ripped a hole the size of a bowling ball through an oak tree and had just kept charging. At this rate, there was no way I’d reach the bush in time.

I pushed myself down to the ground right as the hawk swooped in on the airspace I had occupied. Another shot whizzed by overhead. My gut was right. The muzzle flash lit up the leaves on the embankment for just a brief moment. Bingo.

My satisfaction was short-lived. With the hawk now in between myself and my target, I had no choice but to face it head-on. I could try to take another shot at it, but even if I could hit a bullet out of the air I wasn’t confident that my Thurma would stop it. Hell, I just saw the thing pulverize a tree and keep charging.

I didn’t have any longer to think. The hawk triangulated on my prone form and hurtled toward me with the force of a fusion engine.

35% chance of success

I executed. At the last final moment, when it could not physically turn away any longer, I dropped my pistol and whipped out the Tenderizer.

Sparks flew, feathers scattered, and the avian body of the droid hurtled to the ground. The impact nearly broke my arm, sending me reeling on my ass.

Numbing myself to the pain I turned to face the impact crater the hawk had left. Smoke billowed from the little pit but nothing visibly stirred within. I let out a rumbling chuckle. It had worked.

I crawled over, keeping my head low, and jammed the Tenderizer in the crater for good measure. It met with metal and I felt the hum of electricity as it reduced the bird to scrap. The bird gave out a final cry and stopped moving. In a way, I felt bad for the poor fella. He might’ve been cute if he hadn’t been trying to rip my head off.

“You son of a bitch.” A slurred voice growled from the vegetation ahead. The rustling of leaves gave way to the limping figure of a slight man sporting a fresh set of goggles and a leather cap.

He carried a marksman’s rifle in one hand, haphazardly aiming the barrel downrange. In his other hand, a wrist watch blinked red and white.

“You should keep your pets on a leash.” I staggered to my feet as he reached for his watch, slamming a button on the interface with a smug look on his face. Maybe a self-destruct on the bot?

Nothing happened.

His expression turned to shock as I leaped on him. He tried to ready his rifle but the shot he fired sailed harmlessly to my left. I pinned the gun’s barrel to his chest and crashed my forehead forcefully into his brow.

He stumbled back from the impact. I wasn’t sure if the rifle was semi-automatic or not but I didn’t wait to find out. I brought the Tenderizer down on the hand he grasped it with. The skinny man yelped and dropped the rifle to the ground, a spasm shaking his body from the baton’s energy.

“I’m going to rip your eyes out you rodent!” The falconer swung his good hand at my face but missed completely. I was shocked he could still move in his current state, much less continue fighting.

“Surrender and I’ll let you live.” I cautioned.

“Bullshit! I don’t surrender to prey!” This time his swiftness caught me off guard. A well-placed uppercut put stars in my eyes and locked my jaw shut.

Fine. If he wanted to play dirty.

When he came at me again I pivoted behind his left arm, the only one he could still use and whacked him in the ribs with my baton. The force ripped a scream from his thin lips but he refused to give. Murderous intent still clouded his goggled eyes.

I wasn’t as merciful with my next swing. I pressed my advantage and put the full weight of my hip into a Tenderizer slam to the temple.

Four eyes crumpled like a sack of potatoes. That took the fight out of him.

I wanted to question him about his contraption but he was convulsing and shaking in the throes of some kind of seizure. Slipping the wristwatch off of his arm I stood back. He gave a few final jolts before going limp.

Contestant #4,580 eliminated

2 Eliminations

Bonus Cash Awarded!

The notification gave me bittersweet satisfaction. My plan had just been to kill the bare minimum of one contestant and escape. I shouldn’t feel too bad, though - the falconer hadn’t left me much of an option.

His body didn’t yield anything else in the way of loot. It seemed his strategy once he found a rifle was to sit back and let his bird do the work. A bit lazy, but it would’ve paid dividends if I didn’t have the truncheon equivalent of an EMP and a background in Lot ball.

The rifle he carried was out of ammo and it wasn’t better than mine. The scope was nicer, sure, but the unwieldy length reduced its viability. I went back for my Saker rifle.

That’s when I noticed a faint gold glow emanating from behind the waterfall’s curtain. The bird distracted me from it when I first emerged from the tunnel, but I could spot it now.

Escape Node

70m

My HUD confirmed it.

I chuckled wryly. The falconer hadn’t had a kill yet. He was camping the node to try to pick someone off before he made his escape. Imagine his prey turning the ambush back on him. Poor sap.

I waded through the pond and made my way under the waterfall. I hated getting wet, but I probably needed a shower at this point anyway. Blood caked around my throat. Dirt and dust-coated my slacks and button-down, which had already lost a few of those buttons. I hadn’t been exactly equipped for an outdoorsy excursion.

The golden orb hummed among a pile of smooth stones.

“Alright, I’ve got it this time. Just lift, twist, and…”

Vibration. Then whiteness.

Congratulations!

Round 1 Complete

Time: 02:47:46

Eliminations: 2

Rank Increase: +2

New Strength Rating: pending post-round data

New Audience Approval Rating: pending post-round data

Credits Earned:

Round Completed 50,000

Kill Bonus 16,000

Showmanship Bonus 4,000

Total Credits: 70,000

Seventy thousand credits? If I had a mouth materialized right now it would fall open. That’s more than I’d make in a year, clinched in two hours of gladiatorial combat.

A courtyard area generated around me. Crowds of people bustled about the stone-brick walkway, seemingly unconcerned with the dozens of randomly appearing white flashes that initialized recent winners in their midst.

ATHENA’s voice startled me.

“Welcome, Contestant #45,590… to the Hub!”